Opey Rowell has a pretty straightforward take on carbon programs. “Farm the way you believe and if it fits, it fits,” says the Pekin, Ill., strip-tiller.

A group of companies called the Agricultural Climate Market Collaborative believes that lack of “transparency” is one of major road blocks to acceptance. To address transparency, the Collaborative developed eleven principles to guide carbon ecosystem marketers when forming these new contracts with growers.

In 2022, Truterra will offer two approaches, one to reward recent adopters for their investment in carbon-sequestering practices and one to engage and support farmers through the process of implementing new practices.

The new pilot program focuses on addressing a key infrastructure challenge holding back the development of an ecosystem services marketplace at scale: the ability to easily translate existing farm data that capture the carbon removal impact of on-farm conservation practices into potential carbon credits that could offer a new viable revenue stream for farmers.